Forest Response Research in NAPAP: Potentially Successful Linkage of Policy and Science

The Forest Response Program (FRP), a major component of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP), was established only after NAPAP had been underway for five years. Thus, it benefitted from a more sophisticated understanding of the essential policy questions that the research on fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecological applications 1992-05, Vol.2 (2), p.117-123
Main Author: Loucks, Orie L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acid soils
Atmospheric deposition
Forest ecology
Forest ecosystems
Forest soils
Forestry research
Hardwood forests
Hardwoods
Soil pollution
United States environmental policy
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Summary:The Forest Response Program (FRP), a major component of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP), was established only after NAPAP had been underway for five years. Thus, it benefitted from a more sophisticated understanding of the essential policy questions that the research on forests would be required to answer, in comparison to the earlier aquatic studies. The @'gradient studies@' of the Eastern Hardwoods Research Cooperative were planned as 5-yr projects to determine whether there was any epidemiological pattern in forest responses corresponding to measures of pollutant dose (acidic deposition or oxidants). The NAPAP @'Assessment@' was written after only 3 yr of the research, and its findings differ in important ways from the 5-yr findings of the gradient studies. The FRP had the potential to be a model study of how applied research can be designed to solve major resource policy questions, but it is perceived to have failed for reasons of multiple non-congruences between planning and reporting. Potential still exists for a positive outcome.
ISSN:1051-0761
1939-5582
DOI:10.2307/1941767